


The Enforcer

by Mez10000



Series: True Names [2]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Canon Compliant, Childhood in Elysia, M/M, These two are just far too adorable, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, True Names, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14157666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mez10000/pseuds/Mez10000
Summary: The tale of how Mikleo finds his true name.





	The Enforcer

For Sorey and Mikleo, childhood in Elysia was simple. No matter whether they were exploring the ruins, reading all day, playfighting or hunting dinner, they were largely in control of their own time and knew life no other way. For the residents of Elysia, their childhood was complicated, and only in part due to Sorey’s human nature.

Lifestyle changes like eating food, sleeping regularly and living in houses were to be expected. Once the seraphim had wrapped their heads around the ideas, they even found enjoyment in these human customs. A larger problem was the actual act of raising children. Seraphim were rarely born as helpless as Mikleo, so they only very rarely had experiences of looking after babies, and certainly no one in Elysia had more than a vague idea of what raising a child entailed.

Zenrus had shouldered the majority of the burden himself. In his long life, he had observed human parents, he had said, so should know at least some of what was involved. For the most part, he got the boys through the ‘defenceless and dependant baby’ stage of their lives without incident. At least, without any incidents the residents of Elysia were willing to mention out loud and within earshot of Zenrus himself.

After Sorey and Mikleo began walking and talking, the seraphim had naively expected that the worst was over. They soon discovered not only that they were wrong (in fact, young toddlers were  _ more _ difficult to keep safe because of their constant inability to stay in one place and comprehend dangers) but the two boys were inseparable and only ever seemed to egg each other on.

“What that?” Sorey asked, large eyes gleaming curiously.

Zenrus was cooking dinner - a hearty stew that would soften up the tough meat and root vegetables that were all that could be found this time of year. In deference to the boy’s tiny mouths, all the ingredients were being cut into extra small bites, and Sorey’s gaze seemed fixed on the sharp knife in Zenrus’ hand.

“It’s a knife, Sorey,” Zenrus explained patiently. “I’m using it to chop all the food up for dinner.”

Sorey contemplated this information carefully.

“I wanna help,” he announced.

“You can’t chop the food, it’s too dangerous.” Sorey was not exactly a graceful child at the best of times, and there was no point in tempting fate by adding a blade into proceedings.

“I wanna help!”

Until now, Mikleo had been watching silently, with all the solemn gravitas a toddler could muster, but now he joined in.

“Wanna help,” he decided.

“Wanna help!” Sorey agreed.

Soon, the toddlers had started a chant proclaiming their eagerness to help. Zenrus was wearily contemplating quite how his life had gotten to this point. Eventually, in order to appease the boys, he hit upon a highly important task for the pair - inspecting and selecting the next vegetable to be chopped. The boys fulfilled this duty with great care and attention, and disaster was averted for another mealtime.

As they grew older, the boys naturally spent some time apart, but it was still rare to see one without the other for very long. While the village had built them both a house of their own, they were commonly seen at each other’s houses to the point where the seraphim almost wondered why they had bothered.

“Do you know about Lohgrin?” Sorey asked.

They were no longer toddlers, but children of about ten years, already competent readers with a particular taste for history. They often spent days together like this, lounging comfortably on the floor of Sorey’s home in a nest of blankets and cushions, surrounded by books.

“No, I don’t,” Mikleo answered, already moving his hand to the book in his lap, using his fingertips to keep his place on the page.

Sorey’s eyes lit up like the sun on a fine day. He loved learning about places for their own sake, but getting to tell Mikleo about them was a close second. While the adult seraphim tolerated his excited ramblings, often with somewhat distracted glances or glazed over eyes, Mikleo shared in them, adding his own insights and helping to create new hypotheses from the meeting of their separate knowledge.

“It’s a tower to the west that was built during the Era of Asgard. The book says that it was likely built for religious reasons, and that traces of seraphic artes have left a clear impact on the structure.”

Sorey looked at Mikleo expectantly.

“Some sources do suggest that there was a sudden, temporary increase in resonance during that era,” Mikleo said slowly. “But the evidence we have is vague and unreliable. Most historians I've read have dismissed the possibility entirely.”

“But if that really did happen…”

“It could happen again,” Mikleo finished. “And you think the ruins at Lohgrin might hold a clue to increasing human resonance?”

Sorey smiled. “Well, I admit it's a long shot. But we have a ruin that was around at the right time, maybe someone left some descriptions of how it happened. We might even be able to replicate it!”

Mikleo couldn't help a faint smile of his own. Sorey’s enthusiasm was infectious.

“The only problem is, we don't have a lot of information on Lohgrin - this book only mentions it in passing,” Sorey said.

“And it's not in any of our other books, either.” Mikleo would know, they'd both read the small library cover to cover. Sorey’s current book was the first new book they'd been given in months, and Sorey had gotten first read after a brief tickle fight.

That would have been the end of it, but it stuck in Mikleo’s mind. It wasn't often that seraphim left Elysia, but when they did, they often took requests from the village, of goods to bring back. Many of the books Sorey and Mikleo had acquired had been bought back as gifts for the pair, but they had never requested specific topics before. This time, having heard that Mason was heading out for a while, Mikleo couldn't resist the opportunity.

“Can you pick up a book for me? If it's not too much trouble,” Mikleo asked, flustered. “Please?”

“Don't you have enough books, Mikleo?” The fire seraph said with a smile.

“Not on this topic - the ruins of the era of Asgard. It’s not for me - it’s for Sorey. He’s really interested in it.”

Mason chuckled. “Whereas you have no interest in it whatsoever…?”

Mikleo blushed - his own interest in history was nearly as notorious as Sorey's. “It would make Sorey really happy and you know he’d never ask for himself...”

“It’s a good thing he’s got you to ask for him, then, right? I’ll see what I can find for you, but I can’t make any promises, that’s a very specific topic.”

“I know,” Mikleo assured him quickly. “Thank you for looking!”

Mason was gone for a couple of months, but when he returned, it was not with one book, but half a dozen, and at least two of them were all about the known history of the era of Asgard. Sorey’s face lit up like a beacon. Mikleo felt rather like a moth, drawn inexplicably towards that light.

“How did you know I was looking for these books?” Sorey asked excitedly, hugging the books to his chest.

“Oh, a certain someone let me know how appreciated they would be,” Mason said.

Sorey spun round and hugged Mikleo tightly. It was somewhat awkward with the edges of a book poking in his chest, sandwiched between them, but Sorey’s overwhelming enthusiasm and obvious gratitude made up for it.

“Hey,” Mikleo protested, making a token effort to play it cool. “What makes you think it was me?”

“No one else knows how important it is,” Sorey smiled.

Mikleo blushed - he’d thought he was a little more difficult to read than that, yet Sorey always saw right through him.

Their voracious appetite for books never faded. It wasn't unusual for Sorey to disappear in his house for days at a time, surrounded by books. As they’d grown older, the village had mostly left the pair to their own devices, confident that they could take care of themselves.

Mikleo wasn't so sure about that - Sorey often got caught up in reading and lost all sense of time and bodily functions like sleeping or eating. Usually, if he hadn't seen Sorey that day, he would let himself in in the evening, armed with food. On this particular day, he had been caught up with his own errands, and had only realised Sorey’s disappearance when he caught sight of the flicker of candlelight through Sorey’s window late at night.

He hurried into Sorey’s house, half afraid that Sorey had dozed off while reading and not snuffed out the candle. With all the dry paper around, the house was a very risky place for a blaze to start. As it was, all he saw was Sorey, cross-legged and still awake, squinting at the book in his lap in the dim light.

“You’ll ruin your eyes.”

Sorey startled at the interruption, but when he glanced up and saw Mikleo, he relaxed again.

“Hey, I was just finishing this chapter--”

Mikleo sighed. “Have you even eaten today?”

Sorey’s stomach growled an answer for him. He sheepishly ran a hand through his hair.

“I was going to, and then--” Sorey stretched and yawned. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Late,” Mikleo stated. In truth, the sun had gone down many hours ago, and if it hadn't been for his own activities, Mikleo would have been long in bed himself. “Come on, I'll fix food and you can tell me all about the book.”

Mikleo got to work in Sorey’s kitchen easily. The small space was about as familiar to him as his own house, and he had no need to ask where tools and cutlery lived. He decided on making a simple platter of cheese and preserved meats with the crusty bread that looked like it had been dropped off this morning by Natalie. It was too late for a heavy meal, or anything that required cooking, but Sorey would need something before he fell asleep.

“The book’s about shrine building before the Temperance of Averost. There's evidence of four large shrines built to honour the Empyreans - they're mentioned in contemporary writings, or at least that's what the translators think the travelogues and pilgrimage diaries are referring to - but the exact locations have been lost. I was trying to work out where they might be...imagine if we were the ones to find the lost Empyrean shrines!”

Mikleo smiled at Sorey’s enthusiasm as he chopped at the food.

“It would be incredible,” Mikleo agreed, “but there's no guarantee we’d be able to find them based on the old records. The land has changed around them - we don't even know if they’ve survived this long or been destroyed by the movement of the earth.”

Sorey’s nose wrinkled as he frowned. “Is this that continental drift thing? I still don't understand how land can just  _ move  _ like that.”

_ ‘Me neither,’  _ Mikleo privately agreed. At least water made sense, you could watch it flowing and predict its path based on what you could see. Earth just seemed to sit there, inert, except it was always sneakily moving while you weren't paying attention. “It's something to do with earthpulses, or at least that's what Shaun told me. I guess we just have to accept that it does move.”

Mikleo placed the platter of food in front of Sorey.

“And you need to eat.”

Sorey smiled his gratitude. “Eat with me?”

Mikleo couldn't refuse - he never could when it came to Sorey. He had eaten already, because unlike a certain someone, he didn't get so distracted by his activities that he failed to take care of himself, but that had been a few hours ago. He settled himself opposite Sorey, watching and making sure Sorey ate as much as he needed.

As Sorey nibbled, Mikleo felt amazing. A deep-seated contentment of knowing that this moment was perfect in its own way, that these small acts of caring were so deeply part of him that may as well be him, because if you took them away, what was left wouldn't be Mikleo anymore, but someone else entirely. The revelation sat in the very core of his being, radiating gentle warmth like sunshine, and entwined him with two simple words.

“ _ Luzrov Rulay _ ,” Mikleo muttered.

“Huh?” Sorey paused mid-mouthful.

Mikleo could barely sit still, realising with full force what this meant in an instant. “I've discovered my true name!”

Sorey beamed. “The Enforcer? It's so tough and cool! What do you think it means?”

“I'm not sure,” Mikleo lied. In all honestly, it felt glaringly obvious to him - the one who always went out of his way to support Sorey, to see him happy and to keep him safe. The one to give Sorey’s ideas and dreams a structure that they could implement. The one to see that Sorey’s needs were met, even if he would never voice them for himself. If Sorey was too oblivious to see it yet, Mikleo would allow him to work it out in his own time.

“Still, it's good that you’ve found it, right?  _ Luzrov Rulay, _ ” Sorey repeated, wonder in his soft tone.

A new wave of warmth blossomed in Mikleo at the sound of his name on Sorey’s lips.

“It feels amazing, Sorey. Like...like everything is perfect and I just realised how I  _ fit  _ in the world.”

It was so much more than that, but Mikleo couldn't find the words to describe the feeling. But some of it must have carried over in his voice, because Sorey looked in awe of Mikleo.

“I wish I knew how you felt,” Sorey said wistfully. “I wonder when I'll find my true name?”

“I bet it'll be really soon.”

After all, they’d never been too far apart in the things that mattered as they were growing up. Every time Sorey hit a growth spurt, it seemed like Mikleo was only ever a week or so behind. When Sorey’s voice broke, Mikleo had a solid month of being able to tease him over the unpredictable highs and lows of his speech before Mikleo inevitably followed. For once, Mikleo had hit a milestone first, but he had no doubt that Sorey would soon catch up.

“I wonder what kind of name it'll be?” Sorey said, fighting off a yawn.

“Sorey the sleepy?” Mikleo teased.

He scooted backwards quickly to avoid the first incoming jabs of an impending tickle war. As it was, Sorey was too tired to make more than a token effort and quickly gave up the second Mikleo was out of reach.

“How about we ask Gramps about it in the morning? That is, if you can tear yourself away from your books…”

Sorey nodded. “Yeah. Though I bet Gramps just tells me to be patient and wait…” Sorey yawned again. “I'd better go to bed.”

“You’d better,” Mikleo agreed.

“Stay with me?”

Mikleo never could refuse Sorey.

The next morning, the boys rushed over to Zenrus’ house with the first trilling of the Elysalarks.

“Good morning!” they called as they let themselves in.

Mikleo could have sworn he heard a groan, but when Zenrus emerged, he seemed as amiable as ever.

“Good morning, boys,” Zenrus said. “And to what do I owe the honour of this early wake-up call?”

“I discovered my true name,” Mikleo said, beaming proudly.

Zenrus answered with a smile of his own. “Well, that is good news. You’re growing up so fast, Mikleo.” 

Sorey smiled, sharing in some of Mikleo’s pride. “And I wanted to know when I’ll find my true name.”

The smile on Zenrus’ face faltered. “I’m sorry, Sorey, but humans don’t get true names like seraphim do.”

Sorey’s face fell. Mikleo echoed his disappointment - could humans really not feel the comfort of having a true name? Of knowing exactly who you were with bone-deep certainty? The joy of someone else saying your name?

“Oh,” Sorey finally said. “And Mikleo’s was so cool…”

Zenrus rounded on Mikleo. “You told him your true name?”

Mikleo winced. It wasn’t that Gramps seemed angry, but there was an edge to his voice that suggested Mikleo had done something wrong, and he couldn’t figure out what that was.

“Was I not meant to?”

Zenrus managed to look calmer, but Mikleo could sense that same serious tone as he spoke. “Mikleo, your true name is not something to used lightly. You should only allow people you trust to know your name.”

Mikleo frowned. “But I trust Sorey.”

“What I mean is...it’s usual only to exchange names with the people you are closest to.”

“Who else has ever been closer to me than Sorey?”

Zenrus sighed. “I suppose there’s no harm in it. Just be mindful that those who know your name have power over you, Mikleo.”

Mikleo felt a stab of uncertainty. Was Gramps really saying--?

“D-did you think Sorey would misuse that? Is that why-?”

Sorey’s eyes met Mikleo’s. The abject horror at even the thought was plain for anyone to see and Mikleo wished he could reassure Sorey that  _ he  _ didn’t think that, could never think that. 

“No,” Zenrus said firmly. “I know Sorey would never hurt you. Sorey, I never meant to imply that. I only want to stress how important it is that you be careful in the future.”

Mikleo stayed silent. Sorey was the one to finally break the uneasy mood.

“I understand. You only want Mikleo to be safe and we misunderstood.”

Sorey gave a weak smile, obviously trying for reassuring, but he was still shaken.

“I was careless with my wording,” Zenrus apologised. 

“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions,” Mikleo muttered. 

Sorey’s stomach growled.    


“And I...am really hungry,” Sorey laughed. “We ran straight over here without getting any breakfast.”

“Then let’s have breakfast together,” Zenrus said, already turning to gather ingredients.

Sorey leaned in close, nudging Mikleo’s shoulder with his own and dropping his voice to a low whisper. “You know I wouldn’t--”

“I know,” Mikleo whispered back.

“And I’d never tell anyone else your name unless you were okay with it.”

“I know.”

“If I got a true name of my own, I’d tell you,” Sorey promised. “It’s not fair that I won’t.”

“Yeah,” Mikleo agreed. “What if I gave you a name? It wouldn’t be the same, but--”

Sorey brightened up, nodding. “It’d be a name that only you know for me! It would be really great!”

Mikleo thought for a long moment, trying to work out what would sum up everything about Sorey. Then, at the last moment, he changed his mind. “ _ Bossiv Ciwus. _ ”

Sorey poked Mikleo in the ribs. “Hey! I thought true names were meant to be nice!”

“Well, you are a bottomless pit for treats,” Mikleo shrugged.

“Come on, Mikleo.”

“Fine,  _ Kovkevu Ciwus _ ,” Mikleo said, as though giving his initial answer were such a hardship.

“I don’t get it,” Sorey said, beaming brightly, “But I love it.”

Mikleo was spared any explanation by the sudden appearance of breakfast. As he ate, he was lost in thought. Even if he’d known, he still would have told Sorey his true name. Even if Sorey could never do the same. It was a precious secret between them, one that tied them together. The enforcer and his precious sunshine.

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be much shorter than it was. Mikleo definitely ran away with me!


End file.
